It’s been another hectic week full of gigs, concerts, restaurants and new work responsibilities; overall a very tiring but extremely fulfilling week.
I had the pleasure to play some excellent mambo, cumbia, salsa and soca tunes at Piedra Negra’s Cinco de Mayo festivities, which were a huge success.
DJ Shellsuit and I were quite surprised at the turnout for the Thursday night, since that was supposed to be the quietest event. People ended up filling up the entire Haji Lane as if it was an old school block party, and they drank and sang and danced well into 2 am.
The second night started out slowly, people began eating and drinking at around 9 pm, and only started dancing at around midnight. But once they got started it was difficult to stop them, we stopped the turntables at around 4 am, a bit later than originally expected.
All in all, an excellent party to remember with lots of good food (mmm beef quesadillas), good drinks (mmm margaritas and Patron tequila shots), and beautiful girls (you know who you are). So good, in fact, that it may soon become a monthly fixture.
Unfortunately my recording of the night’s sets was quite botched, so instead below is an 8tracks playlist that I prepared with some of the big hits I played that same night.
Speaking of big hits, one of my latest 8tracks selection has been getting a lot of attention. In only two days since I uploaded the playlist i got close to 100 favorites and 750 listens, something I’ve never had before.
The mix is even featured on 8tracks’ “Hot This Week” section!
I know this is only virtual recognition and that it’s more a recognition of my selection than of my DJ skills, but still, it feels nice.
In other news, I’ll be spending most of next week in South Korea (Seoul), for business. I don’t know yet how much time I’ll have to explore the city, but I’m taking a list of record shops, flea markets, and other interesting venues just in case.
I’m also trying to contact a certain Seoul Brother who seems to regularly play exactly the kind of sounds I dig, to see if I can catch one of his gigs while I’m there.
In any case, I’ll take lots of pictures and share them here when I get back.
Once again, these past two weeks have been spent running around to job interviews, holidays trips to Malaysia and Thailand, friends’ parties and lazy week-ends around Singapore.
I haven’t been able to document everything that’s been going on, but I did manage to record my set from last Friday’s Turn Up The Heat event.
I played some of my latest findings in moog/mod sounds, as well as some upbeat swing sounds.
This set, as well as the little 8tracks playlist I prepared just before, contain some of the sounds I’m putting together for two upcoming events.
One is a private corporate event that will require me to dress as a 1930s gangster and play lots of swing, jazz, and big band music, and another one is a full-on Cinco de Mayo event at Piedra Negra, where I’ll be playing everything from Salsa, Merengue, Cumbia to Reggaeton, Funk and Soul.
I haven’t had time to write much lately. I’ve been going to lots of job interviews and my free time has been divided between movies, art shows, exhibitions, and concerts (Slash, Os Mutantes and Aphex Twin!!).
I’ve taken photos and videos of everything I’ve been to, but I really haven’t had time to write anything up.
So here’s a little quick catch-up of all the stuff I’ve done and liked these past two weeks, in no particular order.
1. Linda Lewis – Sideway Shuffle
2. Nkengas – Jungle Funk
3. The Daktaris – Voodoo Soul Stew
4. Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – Dirt and Blood
5. Pharaohs – Ibo
6. Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra – Lost in Kinshasa
7. Ray Stephen Oche – Daybreak on the Niger
8. The Lafayette Afro Rock Band – Voodounon
9. Asiko – Jibiti
10. Zinabu – Bunzu Sounds
11. Mombasa – Kenia
12. Alex Konadu – W’awu do ho no
13. Ebo Taylor – Heaven
14. The Sweet Talks – Eyi su ngaangaa
15. Marc Thomas – Afrodelic
16. Fanga – Natural Juice (Ashanti Mix)
17. Wganda Kenya – Shakalaode
18. The Apagya Show Band – Kwaku ananse
19. Tony Allen – Crazy Afrobeat
20. Nigeria Special – I Want A Break Thru’
This is also the perfect opportunity to let you all know that on Friday February 25th we will be celebrating Pushin’ On’s 5th birthday, and that a spectacular bash will be held at BluJaz Café.
Make sure you mark down your calendars and get enough sleep for all the funky tunes coming your way!
I’ve also recently prepared a little mixtape to listen to while commuting in and around Singapore, just a bunch of my latest favorite trip hop, drum n’ bass and dubstep tunes. There’s othing here I’ll be playing at BluJaz on the 25th, but i thought I’d share it anyway:
1. Mr Scruff – So Long
2. Erobique – The easy way to organ play
3. J-Walk – Soul Vibration
4. Luke Vibert – I Hear The Drummer (Gonzo Edit)
5. Proxy – The Art Of Leisure
6. Free the Robots – Jazzhole
7. G-Swing – Ring Dem Bells
8. Renato Carosone – We Don’t Speak Americano
9. DJ Farrapo – Swingy Mama
10. Roni Size – It’s A Jazz Thing
11. High Contrast – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
12. Panda – Transylvania
13. Sub Focus & Danny Wheeler – Ghost
14. Heist – Rip You To Shreds
15. J Majik & Wickaman – Mosquito
16. Zen – Time Crisis
17. Spor – 1up
18. Noisia – Crank
19. Skream – Midnight Request Line
20. Ghislain Poirier feat Face-T – Blazin’ (Modeselektor Remix)
21. Modeselektor – Untitled (Siriusmo Remix)
22. Bare – Shot Me Down
23. Alter Ego – Fuckingham Palace (Modeselektor SSw1a1aa Remix)
24. Sneaker Pimps – Velvet Divorce
25. Sarah Jones & Vadim Peare – Your Revolution
26. Paul Hunter – Paul’s Pal
27. Bonobo – Noctuary
Last week was the much-awaited first anniversary of Singapore’s very own audiovisual collective, Syndicate .
I was honored to be asked to play some tunes at the beginning of the night, so I prepared a playlist that would hopefully get people in the groove.
I prepared some dub, electro dub, hip hop, electro hip hop, dubstep, broken glitch beats, basically a lot of different styles that I don’t usually play in more laid-back jazzy/funky settings and that I had promoted through two exclusive Syndicate mixes (dub and hip hop).
I guess I was a bit too ambitious, since my one hour slot only allowed to play a small part of what I had prepared, but I was still pretty happy with the results (props to the VJs who really allowed the sounds to stand out throughout the night!).
